on pokemon crystal

written 20240520.

i got my original gbc cartridge of pokemon crystal secondhand from a strange hybrid retro games and used books store. the shelves were dark timber and interposed between musty paperbacks the plastic cartridges and glossy cardboard boxes seemed so out of place. it’s not a kind of furnishing i’ve seen in any retro games store since.

i spent most of the next year, wherever we happened to be, inhabiting crystal instead. i’ve still got that copy of the game, but the battery is long dead.

crystal, of all the iterations of pokemon that i’ve played, is the one i keep returning to, the closest the series has ever come to my ideal version. this is because it is atypical, compared to what came both before and after, in how comfortable it is being aimless and meandering.

it’s not poorly designed. the mechanics, the way you progress through thejohto region, are really well set out. the game is still a lot of fun, twenty years on. it’s aimless and meandering in its plot, in its pacing, and in it setting. crystal is so… tranquil.

there is no inciting event to kick off your adventure, other than receiving your pokemon from professor elm, and your pokedex from professor oak. there is no rolling narrative to pull you across johto, although you do frustrate team rocket’s plans a few times and teach your rival that caring about pokemon is good, actually. there’s no world-ending threat or grand villain. the game is totally laid back.

past a certain point, you’ll have taught your pokemon enough hidden moves to roam freely across most of johto. you can look for pokemon, or battles, or participate in daily and weekly events. all sorts of things are happening at different times and on specific days, which the game telegraphs to a greater or lesser extent. the bug-catching contest, you’ll learn, happens on tuesdays and thursdays. the lucky number channel game, you can attempt every day. but finding lapras in union cave, only on fridays? there are depths this game won’t tell you are there, will let you discover for yourself, potentially years down the line, possibly never.

crystal is atypical because it’s not structured around a narrative, it’s structured around a space, a living world. you progress through crystal by just… inhabiting it. the mechanics expect you to check in regularly. different pokemon appear at different times, some characters will only challenge you to battles at night, others, if you get their numbers, will call for a rematch. in time, you’ll level up enough to take on the next gym, find another hidden move that opens up more of the world. meandering around in johto is how you’re supposed to progress!

i’m not sure if another pokemon game has nailed this kind of loop so well, letting you jump in, fuck around a bit, progress a little bit, do your dailies and jump back out.

to be honest, pokemon battles don’t really appeal to me that much in themselves. i’ve tried to teach myself about effort values and type matchups and it’s never stuck. i mash through the text boxes without reading when my mon levels up. i wouldn’t be able to tell you if my best boy’s stats are good or bad. pokemon has always been appealing for me as a virtual pet thing, first, and a role playing game second. here’s a series with, by this point, over one thousand beasties to befriend and go exploring the world with!

in crystal, most things resolve down to battling. i think what makes it different though is the way these encounters are framed. you’re not just catching pokemon to fill out the dex, you’re taking part in a bug-catching contest! you’re teaching your shithead rival that love beats raw power, every time! you’re in the depths of union cave or the whirl islands, following up on a rumour, a bit of legend. the battles don’t feel like ends in themselves, they feel like excuses to explore the world, capstones to you learning a little more about it. this is more interesting to me than being forced to slog through them because a poorly-written narrative deanded it.

also it was the first pokemon game to let you be a girl and that’s pretty good in my opinion. ten stars.

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